@fluxwavez: I don't have a Vita, but I've definitely heard that demo is better representative of the full game. I think I more or less know what I'll be getting into either way because it looks like it plays similarly to what I already know, but I'll probably still check it out once I eventually get a source of income a Vita.

It'd really be a shame if they tonally changed things for good. The original Conception was one of those very pleasant surprises where I went from playing it out of very morbid curiosity to outright enjoying it, grinding issues aside, especially since the girls in that game are all assertive and have actual characterizations. Satire tends to be one of the few genres of writing where Japanese is typically lacking because that sense of humor tends to brazenly go against various social sensibilities, but that original game just didn't care at all about hurting any otaku player's feelings and it was a tonally much better game for it. I'm still willing to give this second game a chance as a Spike Chunsoft fan and out of general curiosity, but I'd definitely be bummed out if the writing didn't turn out to be anything to write home about. Their writing staff is what both the Spike and Chunsoft halves have been primarily known for in Japan for years and years now and it'd be a bummer to have seen them drop the ball for this game.

I have mixed feelings on the demo. I was only able to play the 3DS one, but having played the original PSP game in Japanese, I was more or less up to speed with the mechanics, although I totally do remember it taking a while to come to grips with it all when I was playing that first game. There's a lot there and that 3DS demo isn't particularly great about giving you some breathing room to really experiment before it's all over if you don't know what you're getting into. So on the mechanical side of things, I'm more or less pleased that what I liked has stayed in the game. It seems like all of the organizational systems and whatnot are present so you don't have to be overwhelmed by hordes and hordes of statistics and whatnot if you don't want to be and the socialization system with the girls and how different ones are better to bond with for certain class types is a mechanic I legitimately like.

But on the flip side, the things that I wasn't super keen on in the original game still seem to be here, too. The battle system has seen some improvements over the original game, but I'm worried that the general time investment for levelling up still favors too much grinding. The fact that you automatically defeat really weak enemies without having to enter a proper battle with them is nice and was in the first game, too, but naturally, you tend to not see those very often if you're just doing normal progression stuff. Even with the fast forward and auto-battling features, stuff just seems to take a lot of time. Granted, I didn't grow up on RPGs, so my patience levels for grinding tends to be a bit less than proper genre veterans, but the pacing still seems to be about as slow as the last game. Really wish it had a feature like Bravely Default where you could change XP and enemy encounter rates because the pacing issues were the big reason why I put down the original game after about 20 hours despite otherwise generally liking the rest of it by and large. If your party levelled up like two or three times faster, I'd totally be way more okay about dealing with its otherwise okay battle system.

Even more worryingly for me though is that it looks like this game plays up its concept with a much straighter face than the previous game. In that first game, there are still a lot of innuendos and whatnot, but it's written as really hilariously biting satire of sexualization in anime and games. It only plays things with a straight face for about 20 minutes before the game starts calling you out as a lecherous asshole for thinking you'd be playing yet another one of those games and it's great. I think the writing for that game was done by the people responsible for the Dangan Ronpa games and it totally shows. But for this new game, I remain unsure whether that humor is still really intact. I've asked around and done research, but I've got mixed signals on it; Japanese reviews in particular from what I read didn't really state it was a humorous game, but they didn't catch onto the satire in the original game by and large either, so I'm not sure what to make of it. I'm contemplating just buying the Japanese version of this new game because I know some of the humor in that original game definitely doesn't translate very well at all, but yeah.

But then again, RPGs tend to make for bad demos in general. I know people really profoundly hated Vesperia's demo and that game went on to be very widely loved among RPG fans on the 360, so I've got hope. I'm a big fan of Spike Chunsoft in general, so regardless of my personal feelings, I do hope that this localization is successful enough to keep bringing their other games over. Dangan Ronpa has shown that they very much so have what it takes to make internationally appealing games and a lot of their work is similarly very well written and it would be nice for people to not have to be a translator like me to get access to their best stuff. We'll see!

@dizzyhippos: Part of that stuff was in the original game by design, but about 20 minutes in, they stop taking it all seriously and basically spend the rest of the game berating you for being a lecherous asshole who needs anime booty. It's hilariously well-written, so it'd be a shame if that was lost in the second game. I still might end up playing it in Japanese anyway because some of the humor doesn't translate all that well anyway from what I remember with the first game, but I appreciate your input. If it's anime as hell with a straight face about it all the way through, it interests me a bit less, but I'll still probably play it because the core RPG stuff is pretty well thought out. I remain impressed that Spike Chunsoft has done as good of a job as they have on the mechanical end with this series considering they're mostly known for doing action and adventure games. But like you said, it's a curious experiment either way and I'm a big fan of what Spike Chunsoft does in general, so I'll probably pick it up in one form or another, if only to demonstrate my interest in seeing those games localized since I think people who aren't me deserve a shot at playing them too.

And yeah, I found the text to be smallish on the 3DS, but like you, I only have an original model. Still perfectly readable, but considering the series started on the PSP, maybe they're just used to working with more lateral screen space. Hard to say. RPGs are so hard to demo in general anyway a lot of the time; I know a lot of people hated Vesperia's demo and that game went on to be one of the 360's more beloved games with some people, so here's hoping.

@dizzyhippos: Genuinely surprised to hear that the demo content is actually different between versions considering that there's not really a precedence for that very often. I played the demo on the 3DS because that's what I have at the moment and having played the first game in Japanese, it was more or less what I expected with some tweaks and additions to familiar mechanics, but I'm definitely the exception rather than the norm outside of Japan. But when I read your post, I definitely agree that a more proper introduction is necessary for pretty much everyone overseas who isn't me since that 3DS demo kind of just throws you into the deep end without explaining everything the games have on offer. Weird though this situation may be, I suppose I'm glad at least one of the demos actually does a good job of getting people up to speed apparently.

If you don't mind my asking, what's your take on the tone of the game since you've been able to play that introductory content? I really liked the writing in the first game since it's super biting satire of Japanese anime and game trends, but I haven't been able to ascertain one way or another from Japanese reviews whether this second game maintains that. A lot of people there seemingly had too dry of a sense of humor to notice the satire in the first game over there from what I've read, too, so I'm not super worried, but I'm definitely curious nonetheless.

I made this wiki page for the first, last, and only Japanese pachinko simulator worth caring about because it's actually an open-world RPG that does everything in its power to make you forget you can play pachinko machine it's ostensibly licensed to simulate.

This is how I use my Japanese major while I'm jobless. I'm pretty proud of myself.

@indieslaw: Apologies for the late reply! I've been busy with work and stuff the last few days. Anyway, I'm not super familiar with what's available in English for general consumption; most of my actual studying was done with textbooks produced for universities specifically and I read most of my actual Japanese news in Japanese anymore. I'd say that probably your best bet for keeping up to date on Japanese business and economic trends is to just follow Japan-specific news sites with English branches. The Japan Times is probably as good as it gets in terms of dedicated original English coverage on Japan, but I also know that the English branches for the Yomiuri, Asahi, and NHK should also serve you well. As with all news outlets, different organizations have different leanings, but to my knowledge, all four of those places are good about keeping the pure facts and whatnot in news pieces clean. Hope that's at least some help!

@indieslaw: It was always somewhat of a myth to begin with. Having a stable corporate salaryman job is one of the tropes that used to make up "the Japanese dream," so to speak, but even during bubble years in the 80s, Japan's economy was never that strong to facilitate such a thing for everyone who wanted in on it. To be certain, Japanese employment laws are by design meant to make it significantly more difficult for people to be fired for arbitrary reasons, but the reality has still always been that such a future has never been a completely certain thing for most anyone; at best, if you make it to a managerial position at a well-run company, chances are probably pretty good you can spend your career just working there for the duration of your working years if that's your thing, but otherwise people working at the grunt level have always still totally had stretches where they've had to go find work and change careers like the rest of us.

I don't remember the statistics off the top of my head since it's been several years since I've formally studied Japanese business and economics, but I do know that even in the best of times, people with lifelong employment have never made up a majority of the Japanese workforce. Globalization and the general economic realities that Japan is facing as a result of its 20-plus year-long post-bubble recession mean that the numbers are just lessening more and more. People who don't focus on Japan for studies or work are only beginning to notice this trend actually happening by way of people like Igarashi leaving, but this sort of thing has been happening for a long while now. On the flip side, Japan's entrepreneurial business culture traditionally languished in previous decades because the political and economical climates didn't really favor startups, but things are improving very quickly on that front, as typified by all of these veteran Japanese developers striking it out on their and often remaining successful. It's a very interesting time to be working and living in Japan right now in a lot of ways and I definitely remain curious to see how things pan out in the future.

@brackynews: I'm deeply flattered that after having long gotten tired of the Bobrossfreak username on YouTube myself after coming up with it during my dumb non-sequitur high school humor years that there's still someone out there who likes it. ;D